This is an astonishing development.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, a multibillionaire, is giving $1 million to support three candidates in the Los Angeles school board election.
The candidates he is backing are in favor of privately managed charter schools and are generally anti-union.
The people of Los Angeles will decide in next month’s election whether the super-rich elite can buy control of the public school system and impose their pet project of privatization.
This bold effort to buy the school board is an affront to democracy.
Are the public schools of Los Angeles for sale to the highest bidder?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Diane, I agree this is reprehensible; but why is it surprising?
Out here in L.A., we need to do a little jujitsu.. and use our opponents’ strength—i.e. billionaire donations—against them.
The citizens in these school board districts are not idiots, and, if they are fully informed, will not appreciate out-of-state billionaires trying to buy this election. The citizens want to vote for candidates that will be resonsive to those citizens, and not puppets for big-money interests out to privatize our precious public school system.
Kate and Monica cannot have it both ways:
they can’t tell the voters that they are genuinely out to represent them, and then take $1,000,000 dollars from some out-of-state billionaire who is donating so he can profit from the privatization of L.A.’s public school system.
Out-of-state billionaires tried to kill Prop 30 with massive donations, and once the public was informed, they were pissed and, in response, voted for Prop 30.
The same thing can, AND SHOULD happen now in this case.
The highest bidder can only buy what is for sale. If it is the vote, then the problem may be with the voter who is susceptible to what it is that money buys in regard to securing his or her vote. The only way around the problem is to properly educate so that people have the capacity to “deliberate effectively,” this kind of informed decision making allowing people to circumvent the effects of election money. When money is used to buy the elected, deliberation by and of the people should lead to actions that prevent those elected officials from doing anything that is not in the people’s best interest. Naive? Democracy!
How do you “properly educate” people when the “highest bidders” have control of the schools too?
“highest bidders” have control of the schools too?
And the media!
They own the media and big $ can by time on the media.
One hopes that Los Angelenos will be as fired up about this as many of the readers and posters here on this blog.
Diane,
LA schools are no more or less for sale than all schools in this pirateering (This new word is more than just privatization or profiteering) new world of this “Education Nation.” Captains Gates, “Bloombeard”, et al are scuttling our ships and forcing the crews overboard.
Apparently so. That is the standard tactic of rich Republican politicians nowadays. Bobby Jindal supported the campaign of two Jindalclones for BESE, our state board. The first was Holly Boffy a teacher, I am sad to say, who was in A+PEL, the anti-teacher non-union that collects right wing teachers. The other was Chas Roemer, an attorney and son of a former governor of Louisiana, whose kids are in parochial school who ran against Donald Songy, the retired superintendent of one of the highest functioning systems in Louisiana, Ascension Parish. The biggest problem with the Republicans is that they have plenty of money and so are able to largely determine who wins unless an area is heavily minority or notoriously liberal.
The pro-public school people need some wealthy benfactors like the corporatists have. Either that or get that Citizens United ruling overturned.
Remember Bloomberg sent John White to Louisiana and our schools are in the biggest mess possible. New Orleans simply has no real public schools any more and with a population that has a low educational level and often no transportation they really have no choice in education except to send their child to the nearest educational institution. When Katrina came it was found that many survivors were very frightened, not because of the hurricane, but because they had never been outside of the city limits. Taking advantage of people who are poor and ignorant seems to be one of the favorite tactics of the destroyers.
All roads and cash lead back to Bloomturd….we got Pryor in CT who spent some time in Newark with Cory Booker, but he was in NYC originally.
Bloomberg, Gates, Broad, Rhee, Broad are polluting our planet. They are a spreading fungus.
Besides money, what do they have in common: very little to no classroom experience. What pompous, over-rated, self-serving, despicable human beings.
During our last Board of Education election here in the city of Buffalo, NY, one of our Board seats was purchased by DFER’s from New York City. The candidate was completely uninformed and spent his first year or so as a virtual mute. Totally clueless. We are now approaching another election in May. Six seats will be available. Reformers are already staking their claims. As a matter of fact, the loathsome Carl Paladino has stated that he might run (ahem, purchase) a Board seat. If any New Yorkers are reading, this is the racist, sexist, realtor/developer who ran against Cuomo in the last election.
Here is my question for the readers: Can you suggest ways to inform the public as to the issues and the credibility of the candidates? Our elections are usually lackluster and most people will simply vote for the candidate with either the most name recognition or the most money backing them.
Frightening. And I assume this will happen in many, many urban districts.
A website or blog might help. Sadly, people generally don’t show up for these minor elections.
First, LOVE your name!
Second, I wish we could figure out how to educate the public of so many things.
We just had a charter school vote down here in GA. The wording on the ballot was deceptive (made it sound like you were just voting to improve the schools), and the out of state big money poured in for TV and radio ads that were all about “help the kids” , “charters work” , full of cute little kids and smiling parents. (actors).
We never had a chance. So many people told me they voted the wrong way by mistake and they wish they had looked into it more, etc.
Too late.
So I second the request for ideas to reach more people.
Before the Teachers brought forward the Unions kids were taking test to pass to the next grade and before the teacher unions was formed there was far less drop out rates.
A student today entering Collage could not pass a 6th grade test giving before the Teachers Union was placed . a 12 grade student today could not pass a 6th grade test given 70 years ago .
Scott- Evidence please? Can you post some links to support your claims? Your statements are as stunning as Mayor MIkes donations.
I’m not allowed to retain an elementary student unless the parent agrees! That is school district policy not union policy.
Scott, maybe you should learn how to spell college first. Free tip.
Linda, you’ve made me laugh so hard! Scott–you also need to learn capitalization rules.
Just for clarification, did you graduate before or after the establishment of the teachers union?
kathleentriana, this is funny, as well!
Scott, the unions started in 1916. Do you think the schools of 1910 were better? Most kids left school at the end of eighth grade then. Is that what you want?
Thank goodness “Boston” Mike is on his way out. Whether it’s rolling back term limit laws, unleashing John White on Louisiana and Joel Klein on the U.S., hiring Cathie Black for the school system, regulating salt or fat, trashing the public schools, hiring incompetents to preside over the city, directing snow removal from Bermuda or even determining the size of your soda; Mayor Mike knows best. What did we do to deserve this greatness?
In a perverse way, hiring Cathie Black was one of the best things Bloomberg has done for the schools in NYC, as it discredited his judgement about education in the eyes of most New Yorkers.
Not that it changes his behavior, but it makes people more open to hearing about what’s being done to the schools.
Wow, here in NYC he won’t support ANYONE for school board.
Mayor Bloomberg does not want a school board in NYC, just silent sock puppets.
In my district, we call school board members who vote yes to everything from the top “bobbleheads”. 🙂
Yes, exactly. Wealth and democracy are incompatible.
We need to ensure that LA voters know their power is being bought. This is how democracy dies.
Union busting, board busting, school busting, Democracy busting…..seems all the same
to those who are active in this hypocrisy and charade of what they envision as the land
of the free and the home of the brave!! There are no tears for the “little people” as those who own power create living tiers to neatly control some while they live and play safely
in their own tier. What is really amazing is how smug and self rightous some of these
folks are. Didn’t you know this is for the good of the country and the best for all of us?!
God help them and us, but mostly protect us from them. Or should I say the unsuspecting families and their innocent children! This is getting sicker by each day as it is an assault on all sides (brilliantly and surgically precise and executed).
Excuse me? Is the Mayor having a senior moment? Did he perchance forget which coast he lives upon? This is outrageous and absurd short of him making an early announcment that he is retiring and moving to CA. What a slap in the face to New York school-age children and their “voting” parents.
He’ll probably split time between London and NYC.
Really, Mayor Bloomberg, students are more aware than you must realize and they are watching you. Buying school board seats? Is that a good lesson to be teaching our young people? It’s this kind of behavior that makes our young people so distrustful of those in authority, and rightly so.
Bloomberg is an Eagle Scout. I thought citizenship in the community was building a public swimming pool or something, not buying an election.
The Boy Scouts should hang their heads in shame.
Disgusting little man. I just came from Staples where I spent over $60 for classroom supplies. This little man is so out of touch with reality, it frightens me.
That’s just it: he’s a little man. A little man who has a Napoleon complex. He has to spend his money in order to put himself into a position that makes him feel big. I will always remember him as the mayor who would tell new mothers how to feed their newborns by locking up baby formula in NYC hospitals. Oh–AND for attempting to push forward the NYC Marathon in the wake of Sandy.
King Mike purchased a third term as mayor in 2009 when he made donations to City Council members who voted to overturn the voter initiative that had placed a two-term limit on elected officials. Buying elections is nothing new to him.
He has been doing this for quite awhile. I wish I could recall the district where a parent finally took a stand against closing schools and testing, and he made sure to donate to her opponents. She lost. But I am not surprised by any of this. This is what all the BBC are doing.
“All the BBC”?? What is BBC? That’s not BBQ is it???
Sorry, it was late and I didn’t want to type the whole thing out….Billionaires Boy Club 🙂
What a shame, it really speaks to how detached he must have been from children going through the NYC schools in recent years.
Hopefully the people of LA will care enough and get people out to vote.
Let’s also remember that the states that have the worst school systems are the ones which have no unions — Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, etc.
The states which do have a unionized teaching force, such as Massachusetts, tend to be rated near the top.
Because state laws provide enough cases where unions are prohibited, we have a chance to compare,
Are there problems with unions? Yeah.
Are there problems with banks and the Boy Scouts? Also true.
But we must look at each as a whole, not eliminate something
that is valuable in our society because there are a few problems.
By providing a secure livelihood and a measure of teacher autonomy, the unions make teaching a reasonably attractive career trajectory.
Is it not having a union or is poverty the problem in those states?
Both, those go hand in hand.
Looks like the positive momentum of my community supported school board campaign made some people very nervous about their profits being threatened, and now they’re bringing out the big dogs. http://www.robertdskeelsforschoolboard.org I have faith that the good people of Los Angeles will see this for what it is, corporate interests attempting to buy our school board, again.
That’s really good news. Public school teachers need pressure to deliver better results. Here I see a man who has made enough money and are thinking about building and promoting something that’s right.
Let’s me teach you something about democracy. US is not a democracy, it’s a constitutional republic. And founding fathers of the states knew democracy will destroy social wealth, productivity and innovation, as it is happening right now. What’s wrong with democracy? It is the evil power of majority of the people think they deserve more and try to rob those who do better than them, without thinking they have the path to prosperity through hardworking, creativity and commitment – haven’t everyone forgot what “American Dream” is?